Here Are Three of the Best New York Comedy Sketches You’ll See This Week

April 23, 2015

Matt Moskovciak is on a roll. Over the last month, the Astoria-based comedy writer for online network Above Average, an offshoot of Lorne Michaels’s Broadway Video, has written and produced three of the smartest comedy sketches about New York life that we’ve seen in a long time. The sketches take on loud upstairs neighbors, MTA rage, and — no surprise here — gentrified Brooklyn. But since there is nothing worse than explaining a joke — it’s something you just don’t do — we won’t.

Just watch all three sketches. Several million people already have. There’s more about Moskovciak below.

If it seems like Moskovciak, 31, has captured some New York moments here, it’s because at least two of his videos grew directly out of real life experiences. His upstairs neighbors in Astoria, for example, may be as dedicated to their noise art as the virtuosos depicted in the sketch.

“I remember hearing the theme song for House of Cards, like, fifteen times within twenty minutes [coming from upstairs]. And that didn’t make any sense to me,” Moskovciak says. The sketch was inspired by his theory that the noisy neighbors never slept — active late at night, active early in the morning. And despite having children, he says, they always manage to have raging parties every weekend. “Their life just makes no sense to me,” he says.

The subway sketch also was taken from an experience he had with our beloved MTA. When trains were running slow due to flooding, a few passengers decided the most reasonable target for their anger would be the MTA employee who happened to be within earshot. “People were yelling at a worker who was definitely not making the decisions as to how frequently trains were going to run that night,” Moskovciak says. “I’m sure it’s just as bad for the people running the subways as it is for the people trying to get home.”

In addition to his work with Above Average, Moskovciak is a member of comedy sketch troupe the Bilderbergers, and they have more good stuff at their website, here.